Here or Home?
by KCraze
Summary: Cassie wakes up in danger, but is soon saved by the Elric brothers and find that she's no longer in Oregon, but in Amestris. Ed and Al decide to help her to find out how she got there and how to get back home. Possible OCxEdward rated T for safety.


Cassie cried silently when she woke, blood had streamed down her face and matted her left eye closed where the man who captured her had hit her with a rock on her head. Everything hurt, where was Hunter? The last thing she remembered was walking with him when the men attacked.

"She's awake, sir." She heard a familiar voice. The man who captured her. Cassie whimpered in fear, she just wanted to go home. She just wanted Hunter to hug her and keep her safe.

"Good job, Dan, turn her over, I want to see her face." Said a stranger's voice. Dan took a few steps toward her and kicked her shoulder so she was lying on her back, she screamed and writhed in pain, her shoulder felt like it was dislocated.

"Shut UP!" Said Dan, bringing his foot back to kick her again.

"Stop it, I want her alive." Said the stranger, he looked directly into her eyes and she could finally see him through her one open eye. "Hello, Cassandra. I've been looking all over for you," he smiled. His face was handsome and he looked like he was in his thirties. His hair was a light brown and his eyes were dark.

"My name is Cale. You will be treated well here, sorry about the damage; you wouldn't stop struggling, so Dan here had to incapacitate you." He put his hands in the pockets of his nice, but very old looking suit.

Cassie said nothing, just stared at him with her bright green eyes.

"Ah, yes. You are quite beautiful, just as I imagined. You have so much potential I can hardly contain my excitement."

She stared up at him, trying not to squirm away from him. She was fourteen, this was just creepy. She wanted to ask exactly what kind of potential she had, but she couldn't find her voice.

Just then, a blaring siren went off. Cale and Dan both looked at each other in panic. A man ran to the doorway, "Cale, sir! There's an intruder!"

Cale growled, "Who is it? Oh never mind, find him and get rid of him!" He walked towards the door, "Dan come with me!"

Cassie felt a bit of hope well up in her for a moment before it died out. Dan walked to the door and closed it, smiling at her through the bars in the door that served as a window before he locked it and turned away. She decided to try and sit up, and managed to do so painfully. She managed to stand up too, even though her ankle was sprained, she was dizzy from blood loss, she had a huge gash in her side.

She heard some loud banging down the hall and yells, and explosions? She limped to the door and peaked out the window. A boy in a red coat and a guy in a suit of armor were fighting a group of men down the hall. The boy in the red cloak clapped his hands and trapped the men in a cage, Cassie gasped. Both boys began to run down the opposite end of the hall.

"No! Please help me!" Cassie waved her hand at the boys through the bars. She wasn't sure if these were the guys she wanted to be around, but the enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?

The guy in the armor turned around and looked in her direction, "Brother! There's a girl in there!" The other boy turned around and his eyes widened, "What the hell is this guy doing exactly, I thought he was researching the Philosopher's Stone!"

_Philosopher's Stone? What is this, Harry Potter?_ Cassie shook her head. "Please help me. I just want to go home! Please help!" The boys ran to the door of her cell and the boy in the red cloak clapped his hands and placed them on the door and it glowed a bright blue before falling apart. Cassie took a step back in surprise and fell.

"What? What the hell was that?" She heard her words growing faint and more steps coming from down the hall.

"Aw hell, she's really hurt, Al. We've got to abandon ship and get her to safety, come on!" The boy in the red coat ran back out the door and the guy in the suit of armor ran to her and picked her up before she fainted.

* * *

><p>Cassie heard voices around her, "She's waking up, brother!" She recognized the boy in the armor's voice.<p>

"Yeah, looks like it. It's been two days so it's about time." She recognized the other boy's voice. Wait, two days!

She opened her eyes, her left one was conveniently clean now. She looked at the boys who were looking at her as if she were a zoo animal. Behind them was an impatient-looking doctor who pushed them out of the way.

"Let's get a look at you. Sprained ankle, fractured ribs, cuts all over. What happened?" He frowned.

"I... I was kidnapped." The boy in the red coat frowned but listened intently, the boy in the armor's expression couldn't be read. "I was with my boyfriend, Hunter. These men grabbed me and I struggled so one of the men attacked me and knocked me out. I don't know what happened to Hunter." Her stomach sank as she thought of him.

The doctor shook his head. "You're lucky the Elric brother's found you. I'm sure they'll take good care of you." He nodded, "You should be able to leave today if you'd like."

The boy in the red cloak frowned, "Take care of her? She's not our responsibility."

"Yes she is. You're a soldier, are you not? I believe the military will want to be informed of this incident, and you have more power than I do." The doctor smirked and walked out the door.

"Hey you, come back here! She's _your_ patient!" He shook his hand and growled.

The boy in the armor put a hand on his shoulder, "Calm down, Ed. He's right, you know the Colonel is going to want to hear about this." The other boy growled in response.

Cassie frowned, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Just get me out of here and you won't have to deal with me anymore. I'm Cassie by the way."

The boy in the armor shook his head, "No, it's really no problem. I'm Alphonse Elric, and this is my brother, Edward Elric. Are you okay?"

"No. Not really." Cassie frowned. "I'd like to get home though. Where am I, anyway?"

"East City. Cale had you in a facility about an hour away." Edward looked out the window.

"East City? I've never heard of it. Where is it, southern Oregon?"

"Oregon? What's that?" Alphonse cocked his head.

"Haha, northwest America? I can't be _that_ far away." Cassie smiled, they were trying to be funny with her.

"America? I've never heard of it. We're in Amestris." Alphonse sounded worried.

Cassie began to feel panicky. They argued about where they were until she finally accepted she was nowhere near America at all. Or any other continent for that matter. The idea was so scary, Cassie thought she might faint again.

"It's almost like you're from another world." Edward had quit acting completely disinterested and was trying to get her up and out.

"It's awful." She thought she might cry, but she forced herself to stop. She got out of bed and shooed the boys out of the room. Apparently a woman named Riza had stopped by while she was unconscious and given her some clothes to wear and a light bag full of necessities. Seemed like she ended up with a good group of people. She walked out of the room wearing a warm black long-sleeve shirt, dark green cargo pants that were a little loose because she was so short and brown sturdy boots that were comfortable. She felt nice, until she looked at Edward and Alphonse and Ed giggled.

"Just like Riza to dress you up like a boy."

"I'm comfortable, thank you very much." She frowned at him.

They headed out of the hospital and Cassie gasped and gaped at everything. So many things were the same, but so many things were different. Ed and Al chuckled at her, not realizing how amazing their surroundings were. They reached the train station and boarded the first train to Central City. Cassie slept for the first few hours of the ride but woke when they were about an hour away from Central, Ed was leaned against the window sleeping next to her.

"Alphonse?" She asked.

"Yes?"

"Why do you wear that armor? It can't be comfortable. And what did the doctor mean when he said Edward was a soldier? He looks the same age as me."

"I... I wear this for training. Edward joined the military at twelve. He's a state alchemist." Alphonse sounded nervous and sad, Cassie felt bad for bringing it up.

"I'm sorry, I'm sure he didn't just join for fun. What is alchemy anyway? I heard you guys say something about a Philosopher's Stone. I've heard of it all before, but that's like... fiction. Is that what all that blue light was?"

Alphonse seemed to get excited, "Alchemy isn't fiction at all! You can take something, like metal or dirt, and make something else out of it with the same properties, which is equivalent exchange. It takes lots of training though, only a few people can transmute without a circle like Ed. People like me have to actually draw a circle with a correct matrix to do what you want. The Philosopher's stone is said to make it possible to not follow the laws of equivalent exchange, so you could take dirt and make water and so on."

Cassie gasped, "That's amazing! That doesn't exist where I'm from. Can you teach me?" Her red curls bounced as she wiggled in her seat, _how amazing this world is!_

"Well, it's not that easy, like I said, lots of training. Brother and I practiced for years, actually, you could say we're still practicing."

Cassie nodded, then frowned, "Well, I might be here a while... I don't see how I could ever get home."

"Don't be like that, Cassie, stranger things have happened. You got here, right? You could go back home. But how about I talk brother into training you a bit?"

"That'd be great, Alphonse." Cassie smiled.

They spent the rest of the train ride mostly in silence. Cassie tried to think positively of the situation. They made it to Central and she wasn't sure what she would experience here, but she was ready to take it head-on.

* * *

><p>I would love some reviews telling me how I could make this better or any mistakes you noticed, or just anything in general! I'm trying to keep this as in-character as possible. Will hopefully be updating soon :)<p> 


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